Yesterday, Someday
by MangoPirate
Summary: A short ficlette based on a very uncommon, yet believable couple. If you haven't gotten to Skypiea, unfortunately, this will make no sense. KamakiriLaki fluff


Author's Note: This is centered on a couple of semi-minor characters in Skypiea. I wrote it at work today, so it's probably very disjointed. Still, I'm really pleased with the tone of it, especially. Enjoy!

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Laki had always been a tomboy. She never questioned why her best friends were always the boys of around her own age; growing up during a war could turn even the most womanly Shandorans into strong-willed warriors. Only those too old, sick, or motherly to fight were exempt from this rule, and therefore, were the only ones to retain some form of ladylike charm. But even hundreds of years ago, the Shandoran women, after a certain age, helped the men in working around the village. Laki thought of these ancestral ladies with a smile--she had great respect for them, for they held together a culture that could have easily been destroyed.

But, Laki was not like them. She was far beyond a farmer's wife or a baker's daughter--she was a fighter, a leader, and "one of the boys." She had glided alongside the strongest of the men, serving her cause faithfully to the best of her abilities. True, she watched over Aisa when she was not out fighting...perhaps the little girl's adventurous spirit could be attributed to this. No matter, though--being a strong fighter was an invaluable skill, and anyway, Aisa had grown into a somewhat calmer teenager, content to explore the forests of Upper Yard and peacefully care for her small garden.

Laki smiled to herself as her thought process reached Asia. What a change a mere few years had made in her! But Laki felt, too, that she herself had changed; she had grown too soft. She cringed when the menfolk--so acustomed to violence--returned from a day's hunt with some poor creature battered beyond recognition. She politely declined all offers of alcohol, although a few years prior, a drink was the perfect release from the weary pain of a day-long battle. She found herself enjoying the melodious whispers of a long-forgotten nature, and being moved to tears at the sound of the ancient golden bell's triumphant peals of music. She danced alone in the rain, and she, like all the rest, winced in terror at the rare noise of thunder. She felt like a daughter of the soil, but for that, she considered herself weak.

Sitting beneath a glorious old tree, she pondered these many things. She leaned against the centuries-old bark and shut her eyes, letting the sun play along the exposed skin of her arms. Presently, the barely-disguised rustle of bare feet in the grass stirred her from her reverie, and she opened her eyes to be met with a friendly smile on a face half-covered by overlarge sunglasses.

"Kamakiri," she nodded to him, somewhat flustered at being caught with her guard down in such an uncharacteristic moment. "I thought you were going hunting with Wiper."

With a shrug, the outlandishly-clad man sat down next to her and leaned back against the tree as well. "You know him," he said, his tone only half-joking. "He says he's up to it, but that arm of his keeps him out of the game most of the time."

"Mm," murmured Laki, drowsy from the warm sunlight and drifting into a pang of concern for Wiper. "Still bothering him, then?"

A silent nod from Kamakiri led to an awkward and unwanted silence, broken spontaneously by the cries of a South Bird deep within the forest. After a moment, Laki, intent on carrying on some form of conversation, asked, "What about you?"

"What about me?" was the instant reply.

"Letting Wiper talk you out of going hunting... you're getting just as soft as the rest of us."

"Wiper would probably hit you for saying that," Kamakiri mused, "but I'll let it pass. I've been feeling that way about our whole village lately. Everyone's just fallen into this rut of not having anything to worry about or be afraid of. ...I know Wiper's arm is a problem, and I know we all have old injuries that keep coming back to haunt us. But we're still young." A flush of color came to his cheeks as he realized he had been talking a bit too fervently, and he fell silent again.

"You're absolutely right," Laki agreed, sitting up to look sidelong at him. "We are still young. The war was only over five years ago. But in five years we've all turned into sissies." She laughed. "Look at us! Just sitting around talking about the way things ought to be, and not doing a thing about it."

"That's probably the downfall of many societies," he chuckled.

She continued. "We ought to go get the others and go on some excursion. Travel to another island somewhere, forage for our food, go the old-fashioned way! We need to get away from..." Her voice trailed off, and she shut her eyes a moment, her lips moving inaudibly.

"...What?" he asked her after a few moments of this.

Tears brimmed beneath her dark lashes. "I almost said something I would have regretted forever," she sighed. "I didn't want it to be held against me..."

"Were you praying?" Kamakiri was taken aback. "The war might be over, but I still have a difficult time considering that old man as a god..."

Laki frowned and dashed the tears from her eyes with a hand. "That's what he is, and he's much better than we used to have."

"Point taken," he agreed, forseeing wisely that any argument would lead to a very angry woman he would have to deal with. "Anyway, what did you almost say that was so bad? We need to get away from... what? Upper Yard?"

"Don't!" she cried. "Oh, how could I even think something like that? This place... hundreds of us died for this place! We ought never to leave it."

Breathing deeply, she calmed herself as Kamakiri watched her. She had gotten so worked up over such a small thing--he was confused. She was only suggesting a vacation, not a complete destruction of their island. But she was obviously very upset, and he felt more than a little hopeless watching her struggle not to cry.

"You know," he said presently, "this place is ours now. You don't have to be so afraid to say something wrong. And you like the old man... er... the god... you know he's not going to take everything everyone says in all of Skypiea seriously." He hesitated, then put an arm around her shoulders. "Come on, don't be like this."

She blinked repeatedly, from a mixture of being startled and trying to keep her tears from falling. "Kamakiri, are you... trying to cheer me up?" she asked keenly.

He laughed loudly. "What, is there something so wrong with that?"

"I'm one of the boys, right?" she grinned. "You'd never put your arm around Wiper like that. I hope," she added as an afterthought, which brought even more laughter from the other.

"No, I guess I wouldn't. Does it make you uncomfortable?"

"Not really," she replied. Her words were collected and cool, but her mind was racing. What was she doing? She ought to be punching him in the face for trying something so fresh! But she didn't have a desire to do any such thing, and although her heart was beating rapidly, she just stayed where she was--silent, lost in wondering what was coming over her to make her so different.

After a long while, she noticed that Kamakiri's breathing had grown slow and steady--he was sound asleep. She sighed. Something made her blood pump faster through her veins, but she wasn't quite sure what; rather than try to figure it out, however, she gently shifted her weight so as not to disturb him and rested her head against his chest. It was not long before she, too, dozed off into a peaceful sleep, punctuated only with dreams of fairytales she had been told as a child.

It was there beneath the tree that Wiper found the two of them later that evening. He stared at the sight in disbelief for a full two minutes before raising his voice to shout, "What is going on here?" and startling them both back to consciousness.

Upon realizing what had happened, the two leapt to their feet and backed away from each other as Wiper continued to stare. "No, you know what?" he said at last. "I don't want to know." He frowned at his friends and turned to march back to the village in a cloud of violated anger.

"Oi, Wiper, wait," called Kamakiri after him, but Wiper only waved a hand as if to shoo away an insect of some kind and kept walking. Kamakiri turned to Laki and sighed.

"Well," he said slowly, "that didn't go at all like it was supposed to..."

But Laki could only laugh. For all the worrying she had done that day, and all the wonder she had about her latest emotions, it was worth it to see that look on Wiper's face. She collapsed again to the forest floor in a fit of rather girly giggles.

"It's not that funny!" Kamakiri blushed again. "You know what he thinks about us?"

"Oh, let him think it!" she laughed again. "Maybe it will be true someday!"

Unnoticed behind his sunglasses, Kamakiri's eyes widened immensely as Laki kept on laughing.

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Cute, ne? I love this couple so much. :3 Please review! Thanks for all the positive reviews I've been getting, too! 


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